How to delay the water from freezing for outdoor cats without electricity

This post shares the method I used to delay water from freezing for Midnight and the other cats in my yard. Without electricity or another power source, the water will freeze eventually when the temperature is low enough.

I decided to go with stacked bowls with a hot pack in between the bowls. Metal bowls should never be used in cold weather with the cats. Their tongue could freeze to a metal bowl! (When I was in sixth grade, a kid licked a metal pole during recess. His tongue froze to the pole and the ambulance was called. We were told to not look out the window by the teacher!)

The hot pack

I've used hot packs when taking a hot dish to family gatherings (we got a Pyrex travel bag for a wedding gift). The hot packs had worn out so I ordered 3 from Amazon.

Why 3? I wasn't sure what the rules for the hot pack would be. This hot pack is only for hot dishes and the pack is heated in the microwave. To be safe, I only put a hot pack in the microwave when it was at room temperature.

Having 3 allowed the pack that was frozen outside to completely thaw before reheating it again.

When the temperature was dropping below zero, I put out fresh water with a heated hot pack three times a day.

The final result

The hot pack kept the water from freezing for longer than without it. Some days it was hours longer, but how much longer depended on the air temperature.

Also, setting the stacked bowls inside the cooler may have helped too (I didn't do a test with the cooler). The cooler was a cheap cooler that I found on clearance (probably because I bought it during the winter!).

At times when I expected at least one cat to be in the yard waiting for food, I provided wet food so they could consume it before it froze to help them stay hydrated.

bowls and hot pack on table

bowls stacked with the hot pack

Water bowl in styrofoam cooler

Other resources to keep water from freezing

There are other options to help to keep the water from freezing for cats. I looked into the Solar Sipper but the models I saw only keep the ice out of the water down to 20 degrees Fahrenheit and in Michigan the temperature drops below 20 in the winter.

The Snuggle Safe looked like it had fabric on it. So with the bowls being outside, I didn't want to mess around with wet fabric.